Since the film debuted at Venice, I’ve been trying to avoid reviews of Alps, the new film by Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos. I’ve seen headlines and brief quotes that are generally positive; those, a couple trailers and the basic synopsis are all I’m willing to see before going into the film. (The synopsis is easy: a small group of people, led by a man who calls himself Mont Blanc, form a service to help people grieve by standing in for their departed loved ones.)

Now we know that there will definitely be chances to see Alps on US screens, as Kino Lorber has picked up the film for distribution. It won’t be around until next spring, which is quite a while to wait, but better that than no distribution at all.

If you’re also eager to see the next effort from the Dogtooth director, check out a new trailer below. The dialogue is entirely in Greek, but you’ll be able to get an idea of the character of the film, at the very least. Those who’ve seen the director’s last film will recognize certain elements and impulses very quickly. Read More »

Dogtooth has been a surprising film over the past year, first shocking audiences at Cannes with a depiction of a family whose dysfunction is more whacked-out than most would think possible, and then blindsiding awards prognosticators when it nabbed a Best Foreighn Language Film Oscar nomination.

Now director Yorgos Lanthimos is already in post-production on his follow-up film. Called Alps, the movie is likely to hit Cannes, and the director says it makes Dogtooth look like a kids’ film. Uh-oh. Read More »

For an awards show that purports to honor outstanding achievements in film, the Academy Awards seem oddly drawn to the familiar. The movies with the most nominations at this year’s Oscar race, for example, are The King’s Speech and True Grit — two films with a great deal of critical acclaim backing them, but ones that are decidely lacking in any grand ambition beyond presenting a traditional, accessible story. The Oscars, it would appear, favor the classically good to the unconventionally good, leaving the latter out to be forgotten in a sea of mediocrity and predictability. This isn’t a shocking revelation; the Academy Awards have always favored films that adhere to a certain standard of genre filmmaking. A heart-rending, war-based drama about one man’s uplifting struggle against adversity will always win out over the truly innovative, progressive, subversive films of our times. Read More »

This week, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar, and Adam Quigley assess this year’s Superbowl film spots, praise the merits of Tarsem’s The Fall, and discuss how much truth a movie needs to have to be considered legitimate.

You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us for our next live broadcast on Sunday, February 13 at Slashfilm’s live page at 10 PM EST / 7 PM PST, where we’ll be reviewing The Eagle.

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

ENTER THE VOID Enter the Void is unlike anything I have ever seen or experienced. It’s a one-of-a-kind work of stunning ambition and passion—a psychedelic trip through one man’s drug-fueled perception of his life, his death, his afterlife, and his rebirth. This is not a film to be taken lightly. From its dizzying, techno-charged opening credits onward, it assaults the senses, immersing you (whether you like it or not) into a soulless abyss of life-altering despair, vacuous sex, vibrant neon cityscapes, and obsessive existential desires. For many, it will be a confounding, interminable bore, so indulgent in its own sensual kineticism that it fails to conjure up a satisfying, coherent narrative. Such a reaction is understandable, but with the current antiquated need for the same strict storytelling structure in every film, Gaspar Noé’s soaring, perspective-bending journey through an ethereal Tokyo dreamscape marks exactly the sort of unrestrained madness that today’s jaded moviegoers should be celebrating. It isn’t just the greatest visual achievement since 2001: A Space Odyssey—it’s one of the greatest achievements in cinema, period.Available on Blu-ray? Yes.Notable Extras: DVD & Blu-ray – Deleted scenes, VFX, Vortex, DMT, Posters, and Teasers/Trailers/US Trailer/Unused Trailers.

Next week, five films will be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Today though, from the list of 65 films that were originally announced as eligible, the Academy has released a shortlist of nine films that remain contenders, four of which will soon get the short end of the stick. What films made the list? One of them is pictured above, read the full list after the jump. Read More »

The last time we saw footage from Dogtooth, the Greek film by Yorgos Lanthimos that was a sensation at festivals last year, it was a NSFW foreign trailer. Now there’s a domestic trailer to advertise this story of extreme family disfunction. Amazingly, it actually makes the film look more insane than the explicit clip did. Read More »

Reporting on an event like TIFF from the comfort of my own home is frustrating. There’s the drive to learn as much about all the new films as possible, without learning too much and unavoidably pre-judging the films before actually seeing them. But some reviews just have to be read. I’d been curious about the Greek film Dogtooth since it debuted at Cannes, where it went on to win in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. And Get Low, which unites Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek and Lucas Black, just sounded like a great little flick.

Now both movies are earning great notes out of Toronto. Dogtooth has a distribution deal and Robert Duvall’s performance in Get Low is the one everybody seems to be talking about. Read More »